In Three
by Timmesque
Summary: [SoraKairiRiku] In which a local legend is debased and Kairi discovers what she knew all along.


**In Three  
By Timberwolf220 **

* * *

_-but if two's company, three's a crowd – and that demands the omniscient point of view-_

—_Arthur Herzog_

* * *

It was warm in her hand. 

She pressed her fingers around it and tugged it slightly for good measure. Immediately after she did that, she dropped the star-shaped fruit onto the ground.

It was still whole. (and if she broke and there was two, she would spit on it, curse it and cry, because after all, two was an unfair number)

She breathed a sigh of relief and picked it up from the ground. With a light finger, she traced the outline of the star. She closed her eyes and slipped the fruit into her pocket. Her shoulders loosened and her eyes were bright.

Her hand was still warm. (and the ocean was warm too and the sky was warm but her head was cold and the wind was cold and nothing could stop the warmth from leaving)

* * *

_Absence makes the heart grow fonder_

_--Eleanor Roosevelt_

* * *

Her head was on his shoulder, breathing into the scent of sea and sand at her feet. He smiled and watched Riku swing onto the tree, a smirk on his face. She got up and dusted her dress slightly and climbed up the tree. Riku had already chosen a spot next to the curving trunk and Kairi slid next to him. Sora pouted, too comfortable with his position on the beach, but he reluctantly got up and leaned next to them.

Riku flicked Kairi's hair. She swatted his hand away and his smirk deepened like a chasm.

"What did you call us here for?" He asked and flicked her hair again.

She dodged and replied, "Nostalgia." (four years ago, we were here like adventurers with a tiny raft and dreams as big as our heads)

Sora blinked, "We haven't been together lately or something?". His eyes gave way to worry and Kairi giggled quietly, "Are you okay Kairi? We're not neglecting you or anything right?"

Riku snorted, "You're getting ahead of yourself," but he looked worried too and Kairi wondered if she should have remained silent, "I'm sure that's not it."

Kairi smiled at Sora, "I just wanted to sit here today. It's a nice day." (the sun, the sky, the sea and the sand is here)

Sora smiled (and there were oceans in his eyes; deep and warm like the ocean of her home) and climbed up the trunk. He sidled up to Kairi and laid his head on her shoulder. Riku smiled and laid his head on her opposite shoulder.

The sensation of hair against her neck made her uncomfortable, but she said nothing and breathed in the air. (this was her life; between two people who left her, came back, left again and she felt like an anchor and her arms hurt because she kept pulling them back and letting them go again and when they came back on their own, she was sure she would have cried but she was smiling and her arms fell to the ground like useless weights)

Like sea and sand.

* * *

_In married life, three is company and two none _

_--Oscar Wilde  
_

* * *

"You're upset about something."

"I thought you would have realized."

"…Is it because—,"

"No."

"…Kairi?"

"…Does a paopu fruit only break into two halves?"

* * *

_The three of us have been alone for such a long time. We welcome a fourth person_

_-John F. Kennedy_

* * *

Sometimes, she hated the people who called her and Sora a couple.

The word couple made her flinch. (one and one is two and two and one is three and it is an odd number, a strange number, a number that gave her goose bumps, a number her friends hated, a number nobody understood, a number that Riku always called a 'fateful number')

* * *

Riku had kissed her once.

Just once.

Lightly on her forehead.

It felt like a blessing. (and she was loved and he loved her)

Riku had kissed Sora too.

It was on his cheek.

He had blushed and smiled. (because they loved each other and Kairi loved them)

She was smiling at that time too.

* * *

_There are three things men can do with women; love them, suffer for them, or turn them into literature_

_--Stephen Stills_

* * *

"You have that end right?"

"Yes Sora. See? I'm holding it tight."

"Kairi?"

"I'm ready."

"Then PULL!"

(She had squeezed her eyes tight, as if the results frightened her more than the darkness around her death had. In this world where two is two and three is ignored because there was convention and all they had was a legend and a star-shaped fruit in their hands that could fail them again)

"Kairi," Riku's voice was warm, like the paopu fruit in her hand, the piece of paopu fruit in her hand, the ocean of her home—

She opened her eyes and in her hand was a single yellow part of the paopu. Sora was gleefully holding up his piece to show and Riku held his piece in his open palm.

"Kairi," (and they weren't two people or three, but one person, one heart, one ocean, one sky blending together in a symphony of sea and sand in this tangle of destiny and broken bottles on dark shores)

Kairi looked at her greatest fear and let the embers die. She slipped it into her pocket once more and glanced at the stupefied looks of Sora and Riku. She smiled (and in her smile, there was stars and golden chains that bound and loosened them because they were here and they were together and no romance, no story was going to break them away into the tide that dragged her home)

* * *

"Maybe we can have it later," she said.

Her hand was warm like their smiles.


End file.
